Tim Treadgold

Perth commentator Tim Treadgold is one of the state's highest-profile business journalists. He brings decades of experience to Business News, offering readers sharp and insightful analysis of current events and breaking news.

Property investment is supposed to be as safe as houses but two events in the past week point to that age-old belief being flushed around the S-bend in a wake-up call for anyone expecting a rapid recovery in the flat real estate market.

The common thread linking the raw ingredients of chocolate and stainless steel is an attempt by rich investors to corner the market in a commodity to control future prices - a development which, oddly, is good news for WA.

If bets were placed on the chances of pigs flying over Perth, or a former president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions criticising employers for paying their workers high wages, it's a fair chance that the flying pigs would get shorter odds.

Australia is not alone with tax issues. China is also upsetting one of its key industries with tax changes, though not to the point where prominent people can be counted among the losers, which include Kerry Stokes, Stan Perron and Richard Court.

Oops! Has the Resources Minister, Martin Ferguson, just let the tax-cat out of the bag by admitting the obvious, but previously denied fact, that "one size does not fit all" in the mining super-tax debate?

Queensland, not WA, is shaping as the biggest loser from the Australian Government's proposed super-tax on mining profits, a realisation slowly dawning in Canberra and one that could lead to the first of the "special deals" if the tax is to move

The second-hand car business was revolutionised 20 years ago with the arrival of the internet, but there is a second revolution under way that promises to be even more disruptive and could have a significant effect on some of Western Australia’s best-known car yards.